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Les Hommes d'aujourd'hui, 410

n°410

Periodical

Author

Person cited Gérard Encausse, dit Dr Papus
Drawings by Georges Delfosse

Description

The collection of Les Hommes D'Aujourd'hui was founded in September 1878 by André Gill and Félicien Champsaur. The journal was first published by Cinqualbre (until 1883), then by Léon Vanier after two years of interruption. The last publication appeared in 1899. André Breton posessed 27 numbers of the collection.

The review was originally inspired by the successful journal, Le Bulletin de vote, published in collaboration with the journalist Maxime Rude which was a collection of illustrated biographies, promoting the republican candidats in the legislative elections of October 1877. The collection of Les Hommes d'aujourd'hui strays from militant politics; each number (containing 4 pages) is devoted to a different contemporary figure belonging to the world of arts, literature or science. A colorful portrait of the spotlight celebrity is on each cover, followed by three pages of text including citations from the author, entire poems or various notable facts about the author's work.  When Léon Vanier took over the publication in 1885, he would finalize the element of caracature for the series (André Gill and Henri Demare were the consecutive authors of the first portraits). Among the graphic artists that would join, would be Georges Delfosse, who would sign the portrait of Gérard Encausse, also called Papus, on the cover of number 410. Often regarded as "the Balzac of Occultism," he is the co-founder of the Martinist order. 

The drawing of Papus, fits the description Michel de Lézinier gives him here: "Square shoulders, stocky, a paunch forming before the age of thirty, baby-face features which are also severe, black hair, a square-shaped beard, the sleeve seams of his habitual frock coat would tear, apparently too small for his thick limbs" (Avec Huysmans - Promenades et souvenirs).